In June of 1994 Lee Powell attended a church leadership conference at Willow Creek Community church in South Barrington, Illinois where he heard Bill Hybels talk about the local church being the hope of the world. Later that night, Lee gathered with four others who were attending the conference with him to talk about the possibilities for a church like that in the greater Toledo area. It was there where the idea for CedarCreek really began.

In November of the same year twenty-five people came together to form the core of what is now known as CedarCreek Church. In a small back room of a Chinese restaurant they committed to do whatever it took to see this mission become a reality. After nine months of meeting together, learning together, laboring together, and praying together, CedarCreek launched its first public service on October 8, 1995 at the Holiday Inn French Quarter in Perrysburg, Ohio with 180 people in attendance.

In January of 1996 the French Quarter informed Lee that they would not be able to use their facilities for Easter. This presented a slight problem, so the search began for a new location. It was the spring of 1996 when CedarCreek moved the Sunday morning service to the Perrysburg Junior High School (now the Commodore Building) in downtown Perrysburg, a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. As the church continued to grow, so did the number of services. In 1997 they added a second Sunday morning service. In the fall of 1999, CedarCreek launched its first Saturday service and within a week doubled in attendance. The church began to experience amazing growth and the need for a place to call home became apparent.

In November of 2000 the church purchased nineteen acres of land in Perrysburg Township on Lime City Road near Mandell Road, and secured an option for another twenty acres, for a total of thirty-nine acres of land. However, the need for more parking and seats became obvious in the early fall of 2001, as number of services grew to 5 (two on Saturday, and three on Sunday), attendance swelled to 2,600. In December of that year CedarCreek moved to the old Perrysburg High School where there was ample parking and more seats.

CedarCreek broke ground mid-September 2001 on a state of the art, 54,000 sq. ft. facility, with a 1,400-seat auditorium and dynamic children’s space. They moved into this new location the next year and scaled back to three services (one on Saturday, two on Sunday). Steadily, more and more unchurched people began to attend CedarCreek and by the spring of 2004 with the release of the Passion of the Christ, the attendance soared to around 5,000.

To their surprise, space became an issue once more. The lobby was crowded, kid’s space was overflowing, and parking had become a problem again. So in March of 2005 another 30,000 sq. ft. was dedicated, which includes a 330 seat chapel (that can serve as overflow), atrium, bookstore, and much more children’s space.

Even with all the new space, there just doesn’t seem to be enough space. In the spring of 2006 CedarCreek launched its first satellite location in the Anthony Wayne area (about 15 miles from Perrysburg) and a second satellite location in Toledo in the spring of 2008. The Anthony Wayne location later moved to a permanent building in Whitehouse in the fall of 2009. As the history of CedarCreek moves into the future, it is their dream to continue to plant satellite locations throughout the greater Toledo area in hopes of fulfilling their mission further.

While the new buildings and locations are exciting, CedarCreek has always been about the people, people who matter to God. CedarCreek is a young church with still a lot of growth ahead.

Lee Powell, the youngest of four, grew up in an unchurched home and lived a life that many would label far from God. His grandmother was the sole source of Christian influence in his life, and to this day Lee reflects back on the ways in which she played a key role in influencing his life for Christ. Life change really began in February of 1979 when Lee married his wife Joi. A few months later Lee found himself reading the book of Revelation, and through reflecting back on the words his grandmother shared with him, he made a commitment to follow Christ.

After high school, Lee began his career and found himself at the retail giant Sears. Through success as a manager in several departments he moved up the corporate ladder and eventually found himself in the corporate offices of Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

Throughout his successful career in the retail industry, Lee sensed a passion for ministry. In 1990, Lee felt called to leave and return to Northwest, Ohio where he accepted a job as youth pastor of Grace Evangelical Church in Oregon, Ohio. It was the summer of that same year, when Lee found himself in the Willow Creek Community Church Auditorium, and the vision for CedarCreek was born. In 1995, Lee, along with Steve Korn, co-founded CedarCreek church in Perrysburg.

Lee holds an associate’s degree in Marketing from Owens Community College and received some of his religious training through Trinity Christian College in Dearborn, Illinois. He also earned 48 hours of graduate training at Ashland Theological Seminary, and is currently enrolled at Winebrenner Theological Seminary with hopes of completing his graduate work.

Lee and Joi have been married for 30+ years and have four children.

At CedarCreek…

You’ll Hear > an entertaining and uplifting mix of contemporary music.

You’ll See > video, drama, and multi-media that will stick with you on Monday.

You’ll Feel > comfortable in our relaxed “come as you are” atmosphere.

You’ll Learn > how God can help you face the issues you deal with every day.

You’ll Taste > piping hot, delicious, gourmet, FREE coffee (O.K. you be the judge), and chilled soda.

You’re Welcome > whether you’re married, with or without children, single, single again, or whatever your stage in life.

Once you arrive at CedarCreek.tv, you have the option of dropping your children off at one of our Biblically-based programs specifically tailored for their age group. Your children will have a great time learning about Jesus, and being with other children their age. We have ministries for children running concurrent with each weekend service from birth to kindergarten age, first through fifth grade, and junior high. High school students meet weekly for their own specialized service on Sunday nights.

Know who you’re looking for? Our email system is fairly simple. In most situations you just take the first name and the first letter of the last name and add the “@cedarcreek.tv” to the end (minus the quotations.) If you don’t know the exact address, or if you don’t know who you’re looking for, but are still looking for something specific, you can contact some of our key staff by clicking here. And finally, if you are just in search of a general contact, you can submit your request to info and we’ll do our best to help you out.

This multi-site strategy is our way of taking Jesus to our surrounding communities. Each campus has its own live music, multi-media, children’s and youth programs, while the teaching is streamed live from the main campus. Each multi-site campus has a lead pastor and support staff to ensure attenders at that campus get the same experience they can expect to have at the main campus. Essentially, it is a full replica of the main campus with a slightly smaller crowd and a streaming video message. When we started this strategy we often got the question of, “But won’t not having a live speaker be a problem?” Truth be told, when people sit in the main campus auditorium, they don’t stare at the live speaker anyway. They are looking at the video screens!

First, congratulations! You’ve entered into an amazing new chapter in your life. We would LOVE to talk with you and get some information into your hands that can start you on a lifelong journey. Please contact us by clicking here. After doing that, check out these next steps.

Membership at CedarCreek.tv is special and is meant to be meaningful to both the member and the church. It’s more than merely joining the church – it’s becoming an active participant. Our goal is to help our regular attendees move from spectator status to active players and help them become fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We have identified marks that describe what a growing and maturing Christ follower looks like. We call it “Missional Membership.”

The goal is not perfection in these areas to become a member. It is an agreement with what the Bible says about them, seeking to practice, and continuing to grow in them throughout your Christian life.

No, CedarCreek.tv is a non-denominational Church. We do however work closely with the Great Commission Church (http://www NULL.gccweb NULL.org/) movement as well as many other local and national and global groups with missions similar to ours. We are also a member of the Willow Creek Association (http://willowcreek NULL.com/) of churches.

There are many, many ways you can get involved at CedarCreek.tv. You can start by getting involved in a LifeGroup, which is just a group of people (usually grouped geographically) doing life together outside of the Church. There are LifeGroup’s for every stage of life, and they’re the backbone of CedarCreek.tv.

You can also get involved by serving. There are hundreds of places you can use your talents to benefit others!

Also, if you are ready, you can get involved financially with CedarCreek.tv by clicking here.

There are a lot of rumors that fly around town about churches. We can’t avoid those crazy accusations either. The best part is that we often hear them the same way you do, through the rumor mill! Who knew we were really run by a government agency known to conduct secret experiments on religious institution attenders?!?! We’re glad that was brought to our attention by your friend’s uncle who has never been to a service to check it out for himself, but really, this “inside info” is a bit suspect.

Let’s take a bit to address some common myths:

• They don’t use the Bible so it’s “church-lite”: This is a common rumor that can be debunked by attending a SINGLE service… really, ANY service. We use the Bible and strictly the Bible as a source of authority and you will see the verses we are talking about that week in both your program insert you can use to take notes on as well as on the screens during the service. We don’t pull punches and we deal with tough subjects as well. Heaven/Hell, Homosexuality, Marital Faithfulness, Sin, etc… We are not a “feel good” church that refuses to mention subjects that make people uncomfortable. If that’s what you want, there are plenty of TV preachers who preach “Health & Wealth” sermons exclusively. Our goal is to be real with you. We want to lead you into a relationship with Christ and then challenge you, and drive you to be the best person you can be as God designed.
• The pastors drive luxury cars: Like any good rumor, there is a hint of truth here. There have been luxury cars spotted around the Perrysburg area with vanity license plates that spell some form of CedarCreek on them. Unfortunately for us, these are driven by the owners of “Cedar Creek Farm”, a local equine facility, and not our staff members.
• You have to give a copy of your W2′s to be a member: Nope. We’ve never asked anyone’s financial records, nor do we plan to. That’s just none of our business! We DO however, offer all of OUR finances as an open book, just ask (No we won’t tell you individual staff member’s salaries as that is a privacy issue, but we DO publish the salary of the Senior Pastor and you can pretty much assume everyone else is considerably less). Our budget is voted on yearly by the members of the church (who can see “salary” as a line item), and we also voluntarily submit our books to 3rd party audits yearly, and practice strict rules regarding finances to ensure our integrity cannot be questioned. We take it very seriously. It’s kind of a big deal when we’re held responsible directly to God for properly managing his people.
• The doors are barred until a certain amount is received in the offering: We no longer do this as we’re too busy crusing around town in our luxury cars and looking at your W2′s… WHAT? Who comes up with this stuff?